\n<\/p>\n
When people encounter immediate danger, the body can enter an automatic survival state, said clinical psychologist Dr Annabelle Chow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there’s immediate danger, our body kicks into a survivalistic, automatic, and default state,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that means it goes into fight, flight, or freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a state of panic, for example, when there’s blood, there’s noise, there’s screaming, there’s a weapon \u2026 our brain has so many decision points that we have to make, and fear has a real, real effect on our body as well,\u201d said Dr Chow.<\/p>\n
Some people may freeze or feel unable to move, while others may flee or even move towards the danger, she added, pointing out that it is difficult for people to \u201creliably hypothesise\u201d how they would react in an emergency.<\/p>\n
How someone responds can depend on the circumstance \u2013 including how dangerous it is, whether weapons are involved, and whether that person has the skills to help, said Dr Chow.<\/p>\n
In Mr Osman\u2019s case, for example, his knowledge of silat may have given him greater confidence in his ability to handle the situation, said Dr Chow.<\/p>\n
But what people think they would do when calm can still be very different from how they would react in a real crisis.<\/p>\n
Dr Chow experienced this herself years ago when her son fell into a swimming pool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought that I would kick into action and be able to just bring him up, right? But unfortunately, I froze.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said others have shared similar experiences \u2013 believing they would respond one way, only to react differently in a real situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite important to offer yourself some self-compassion that your brain was under stress and it reacts the way that it knows how,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But preparing and rehearsing what to do in an emergency could improve the chances of responding effectively. Dr Chow likened this to cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you learn the steps, you practise, you have the muscle memory, you have the mental memory. You have a better chance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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FIGHT, FLIGHT OR FREEZE When people encounter immediate danger, the body can enter an automatic survival state, said clinical psychologist Dr Annabelle Chow. \u201cWhen there’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--qj6kXjDw--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/24\/istock-1205992631.jpg?itok=gc7dqmox","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5187,1441,1153,11431,4302,16123],"class_list":["post-79340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-danger","tag-fight","tag-flight","tag-freeze","tag-step","tag-strikes","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}